Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) (804 m / 2,638 ft) is a Birkett (one of the 541 tops in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells), one of the lesser-known Northern tops.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 804 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Fri 11 Sep): 10° to 6°C, gusts to 30 mph, 2.6 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 11 Sep 2026, 08:30 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 804 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) at a glance
Routes up Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) a Wainwright?
Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) is not a Wainwright. It is on the Birkett list and the Synge list.
Where do you park for Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)?
The nearest car park we hold is Threlkeld Car Park, about 1.6 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Knowe Crags, south-west (layby), 1.7 km out. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.
How hard is Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)?
The shortest way up we hold is Blencathra via Blease Fell — 11.9 km, 750 m of ascent, about 3.6 hours. On our scale its hardest axis is steepness — Severe.
All axes: steepness: Severe · navigation: Hard · terrain: Moderate · length: Moderate · exposure: Easy.
Parking & buses for Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
Best parking to hike Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.
Tip: pan and zoom the interactive map at the top of this page to spot other potential parking near your route.
Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.
Getting to Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) by bus
The 509 stops at Threlkeld, by Village Hall, 160 m from the start of Blencathra via Blease Fell — a route we rate Easy. Last bus: Monday to Friday 22:02 towards Keswick (X5); Saturday 22:02 towards Keswick (X5); Sunday 19:54 towards Keswick (X5). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.
Don’t drink from Gategill Beck
On the way up you cross Gategill Beck, which runs below the old Threlkeld and Gategill lead mines. The Environment Agency records it carrying dissolved lead and cadmium above the level that is safe to drink. This is not the usual hill-water risk: a squeeze or hollow-fibre filter (LifeStraw, Sawyer and the like) removes none of these dissolved metals, and boiling only concentrates them. Carry your own water for this walk and don’t refill from the beck.
What’s actually in this beck — we mapped every mine-fed one →
Metal-mine water data © Environment Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Threlkeld Car Park, about 1.6 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Knowe Crags (Blease Fell) (within 3 km)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.
Routes over Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Knowe Crags (Blease Fell)
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Blencathra via Blease Fell route:
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
Places to stay near this fell
From Threlkeld: 6 places in Keswick